protecting you
by foreversnow
Summary: Part I. In a world where everything’s changed and anything can get your life taken away, Sakura doesn’t know what to run away from anymore. —SasuSaku


**p r o t e c t i n g  
****y o u**

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"_Can I…hold your hand?"  
_"_Why?"  
_"_Why __**not**__?"_

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**One.**

In all of her fifteen years of living, Sakura would have never thought she would actually be attempting to escape the hellhole she called home, the hometown she had grown up in; and certainly not with a complete stranger. But he'd saved her from being shot to death, had risked his life just to save her…even when everyone else tried to save only themselves, tripping over the dead bodies and slipping on the pools of blood at their feet. She should have known what they were planning to do; after all, receiving a strange invitation in the mail that had said it was mandatory to attend was already suspicious in itself. But she couldn't turn down the invitation; if she did, she would most likely be killed by the government officials in charge of this event.

The first round of bullets was almost deafening. Like hundreds of firecrackers going off right next to your ears. All at the same time.

She'd been lucky the first time; a largely-built boy that looked to be around her age had been standing directly in front of her when the guns went off. His body fell forward, face first, and she knew she would be shot next if she didn't run away from these men, but the sound of guns going off had brought back memories; memories she thought she'd put behind her long ago. So when one of the men pointed his machine gun at her, she didn't move, didn't try to run.

That's when _he _came. The boy who'd grabbed her and thrown her onto the ground, flattening his body on top of hers just as the loud noise of guns going off struck through the air. The moment the firing had stopped, the air was filled with the horrid stench of both blood and gunpowder, and the boy dragged her into the shelter of the trees and away from immediate danger.

But even _he _couldn't save her from being hit by _all _of the bullets. Her right shoulder burned; the bullet had just barely grazed her skin, but it was enough to leave a half-circle mark on her arm, blood flowing from the fresh wound.

Still, he'd risked his life to save _her_, a complete stranger.

She wanted to thank him for saving her life, but now wasn't the time for that; right now they had to stay _alive_.

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**Two.**

"Stay still."

She did exactly that. Her breathing was labored; her heart pounded loudly in her ears. She tried her best to stay still, looking around jerkily, while he listened intently to the sound of heavy footsteps coming closer.

_Oh god, they found us; we're going to die_—

But almost too quick for her to see, he'd jumped out of the tall grass and launched himself at the man (soldier, as they called themselves), taking him by surprise. They both landed on the ground, and immediately the soldier tried to shoot him, but he was faster than the soldier, and he was already getting up; and with a sickening crack, his foot made contact with the soldier's neck, and the soldier stopped moving.

He was breathing harshly, dark charcoal eyes opened slightly wider than usual, but he walked almost calmly towards where the machine gun had landed in their scuffle. He picked it up and turned to look at Sakura, who was now standing up in the same spot that he'd left her, holding her hand over the spot where she'd been shot, her whole arm stained red. Her eyes were wide with fear, but they weren't looking at him; she was staring at the motionless soldier.

"Is he de—" She choked back the vomit rising in her throat, "—dead?"

"…I had to kill him, or he would have killed _us_."

His voice held almost no emotion, but his eyes showed a small trace of guilt. He just killed someone; _of course he'd be feeling remorse!_

She nodded quickly in understanding; dirty, shoulder-length, bubble-gum pink hair slapped at her face as she moved (_almost ran_) to stand by his side. "What are we going to do now? I mean, we can't just keep on running; they probably already set a barrier around this place, so if we try to get too far they'll just kill us anyway. They never let anyone live; especially not people like us who tried to 'conspire' against them."

"We'll keep walking; we need to find a safe spot to rest. We'll think of something once we get some rest."

She gulped. They really had no chance of surviving. So what was the point of running? They were only prolonging their deaths by a few minutes, maybe hours, if they were lucky.

The adrenaline pumping through her body was slowly disappearing, and with it came the realization that she had been hurt. She winced. "O-ow…" Taking her hand off so she could look at it more clearly, she winced again. The bleeding had slowed a little, but it hadn't stopped completely. Her whole arm was drenched in blood; how much had she lost by now? She'd been so scared of dying she hadn't even realized how severe her injury actually was.

He'd heard her whimper almost silently, and he stopped walking. Turning quickly to see if she was okay, he stopped, his eyes instantly falling on her wound. "Sit down." She was paler than she had been a few minutes ago; how much blood had she lost already?

Sakura sat down. He placed the machine gun next to her, making sure the tip was facing away from her, before turning to examine her shoulder. He gently put his hand on her shoulder, and she bit her lip, holding back a scream. Tears were falling down her cheeks now; her breathing rough. "I'm going to have to rip your shirt; there's too much blood everywhere, so I can't exactly see where the wound is." Not even waiting for her reply, he grabbed the collar of her school uniform with both hands and ripped it, the pieces falling limply to the ground. He'd ripped half of her shirt off; the only thing covering her was the thin tank top she wore underneath, and she shivered. Had it really been so cold all this time?

He peered closer at her shoulder, leaning over her to get a better look, and she shivered again. They weren't even touching, and she could already feel his body warmth against her skin.

"All we can do for now is try to stop the bleeding." He ripped off the rest of her shirt, tearing it into a long strip that resembled a bandage. Wrapping it tightly around her shoulder and under her arm over and over again, he breathed out slowly. Hopefully, that would stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down. Shrugging off his school jacket, he draped it on her shoulders, careful not to hit the freshly bandaged wound. She was almost a foot shorter than him, and her body was small, so the jacket seemed gigantic on her petite body. It would have been almost laughable, under different circumstances.

She smiled weakly at him, her eyes half shut from exhaustion, and in the dim light she swore she'd met him before (_maybe by chance on the street; maybe they'd known each other when she was in junior high, who knows_), but she was too tired to think at the moment, and so she leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder. "Thank you…"

It was all she could say before she lost consciousness.

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**Three.**

When Sakura woke up, the sky was still dark. Which meant it was still nighttime. How long had she been asleep? It probably hadn't even been an hour. "What…?"

That's when she realized; she was lying on something prickly…grass. She was lying on the ground. Alone. Panic shot through her body; did he leave her alone to die; to save himself, because she was just slowing him down? _He wouldn't_…How did she know he wouldn't do that? She didn't know anything about him—

"You're awake?"

Her head jerked in the direction that the voice had come from. "Nngh…" She'd moved her body too suddenly, and pain flared through her shoulder. "A-ah, you came back…" The relief she felt was almost overwhelming. She felt guilty. _How could I have doubted him? I'm so __**stupid**__…_

He kneeled down next to her, the machine gun in his right hand. "Be careful; too much movement and you'll only end up bleeding more."

Sakura nodded. She couldn't speak; she felt too guilty. Besides, if it wasn't for her, he would have probably gotten away and lived longer than her. But because she was hurt and tired, he had to wait for her…Staring at the ground, she said, "Hey, wouldn't it be better if you just left me here? You'd have a better chance of escaping…I'm only holding you back. I'll be fine if I hide somewhere, so…"

When he didn't say anything, she lifted her head up to look at him. He was still kneeling in front of her, his face a few inches away from hers. His eyes stared into hers for a while, moving around as if looking for something, until he said, "I thought you were smarter than that." He sighed. Standing up, he offered his hand to her. "We should keep moving; while you were asleep I checked how far away the soldiers were. They're closer than I thought they'd be."

She stared at his hand for a while, then at his face. He was staring back at her with an almost unreadable expression on his face. He smirked at her, and she blushed. Taking his hand, she got up. She didn't let go of his hand and he didn't try to pull away. "This way."

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**Four.**

They'd been walking for hours, it seemed, and the sky was starting to turn lighter, when all of a sudden they heard gunshots not too far away from them. He immediately pulled on her hand (which he hadn't let go of since he offered it to her) and she was flat on the ground, while he kneeled down and looked around.

More gunshots.

His eyes widened slightly, and he muttered under his breath, "Damn."

Sakura looked up at him. "It's really close by, isn't it." She didn't wait for his response. "What are we going to do? Do you think…do think we should go check it out?"

He shook his head. "No. We have to get away from here now. They're too close—"

He stopped talking suddenly and Sakura screamed.

A body fell on the ground, the lifeless, bloody face only inches away from Sakura's. Open, blank eyes stared right at her, and she screamed again as she threw her body backwards, completely forgetting about her injured arm. There was a _dead body in front of her!_

She was about to scream again, when he put his hand over her mouth to stop her, dragging her towards the trees, saying, "They heard us! We have to run!"

And so they ran.

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**Five.**

How long, really, was she going to have to keep running away? It seemed like the only thing she was good at doing. All her life was spent running from her past, from the things that hurt her. From the freakish government that ruled over them.

Traitors were killed. That's just the way it was. _Of course _they'd try to kill her now. Both of her parents had died trying to change their country into something she would be proud to call her home. Her older sister was shot (_while she watched on helplessly_) at the age of sixteen because she had been labeled 'suspicious' when she was out past curfew one night. Laws weren't taken lightly. Sakura was left to take care of herself after that; a scrawny seven-year-old begging for food on the streets. Nobody tried to help her; if they did, the government would kill them. Obviously.

Her whole family was dead.

So, when was it her turn?

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**Six.**

She didn't exactly know how long they ran for, but by the time they'd stopped to rest for a while, the sun was almost directly above them. Her lungs felt like they would burst.

_Breathe._

"Um…" She wanted to know what they would do next, but the words wouldn't come out. She frowned. Her right arm felt weird; she could barely move it at all.

He saw her trying to lift up her arm and said, "It'll turn completely useless if you don't get that checked soon."

She nodded. "I know…"

He stood up without uttering a response, walked over to a tree and stared at it.

Sakura wanted to know what he was doing. Standing up, she went to stand next to him and was about to ask him what he was doing when he moved the tall grass away from the front of the tree and said, "Get in." She lifted an eyebrow at him questioningly until she saw a small opening at the bottom of the tree; the shallow base was big enough for her to sit in with her knees tucked up against her chest. She turned to look at him again from inside the little opening, asking, "Why am I—"

"Stay where you are; when the soldiers pass by, don't move, and don't make any noise. Try to hold your breath if you can." He kneeled down to her eyelevel and leaned forward, bringing his face inches away from hers. "When they pass by here and you can't hear their footsteps anymore, wait another three hours. Once you're sure nobody else is coming, run back in the direction they came from; you'll be able to escape if you get on one of their ships in the middle of the night."

She opened her lips to ask something, but he put his hand over her mouth, and continued, "Once you do that, make sure no one sees you until you get close to land; when you do, get off the boat. You can swim, right? Don't try too hard, though; your right arm is almost completely useless right now." He reached down into his pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper, which he tucked into her bra, making her blush as his fingers brushed her skin. His words got quicker. "Find someplace where you can get new clothes; something that won't make you so recognizable. They'll be searching for you; we're probably some of the few they haven't killed yet…After that find a train station. Once you're there, open that folded piece of paper. And make sure not to open it until you get there."

All this information made her head spin. If she was going to do all of this, then what was he—?

He was already standing up, the machine gun still in his hands.

"Wait!"

He looked down at her.

"You-what are you going to do, then? Can't you hide here too? I mean, if you go off by yourself then they'll find you—they'll kill you!"

After a few seconds of silence, he slowly kneeled down again.

His eyes were hard to read, but she could tell there was something he wasn't telling her. "It's fine." He surprised her, then, when he leaned forward and kissed her, and she felt that weird feeling that this wasn't their first time. After a while, though, she kissed him back, shivering with pure ecstasy when she felt his hand on the nape of her neck, pulling her closer against him.

Her breathing was uneven when he pulled away, and she could tell his was shaky as well. Breathing against her lips, he said, "As long as you get to live, I don't care." He pulled back enough to stare into her eyes.

"I won't let them kill you, Sakura."

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**Seven.**

He left before she could say anything.

With a shaky, choking laugh, she muttered to herself, "Happy Valentine's Day, Sakura."

The tears wouldn't stop after that.

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**Eight.**

It wasn't until months later, in her new home, when she received a mysterious post card with no return address that she realized:

She'd never once told him that her name was Sakura.

(_he knew_—)

"_I __**will **__protect you, Sakura."_


End file.
